If i have entities student and instructor, is it better to have 2 tables like:

Table 1: Person PK: ID Cols: PersonType, Name

Table 2: PersonType PK: ID Cols: Type desc

Or is it better to have 2 tables like:

Table 1: Student PK: ID Cols: Name

Table 2: Instructor PK: ID Cols: Name

Any suggestions how i should go about this please.

Thanks.

If student can be instructor as well, you can only use the first option. If that's never the case, you can use both, with the second option easier to query, but less flexible when the situation will have students to become instructors as well.

Thanks Frans.